Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson had done this before. He stopped at 10 feet from the hoop, pulled up and dropped in one of the NBA’s sweetest jump shots to give his team an 18-point lead with 9:33 left in regulation Thursday night.

Next came something very few Warriors had experienced.

The franchise, which hadn’t advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs since 2007, appeared in position to coast to a clinching Game 6 victory over the Denver Nuggets. Eight turnovers later, the Warriors had pulled out a 92-88 win and backed their way into a second-round Western Conference matchup with the No. 2-seed San Antonio Spurs.

The Warriors will now venture into a city in which the franchise has lost 29 consecutive games.

“We did everything we could to let them back in the game,” guard Stephen Curry said in a postgame interview with TNT. “They just started trapping all over the place, running wild and that won’t happen again. We escaped tonight. We’ll learn from it. That won’t happen again.”

The Warriors built their big lead with play that mirrored their best moments this postseason. Riding a 14-point third quarter from Curry, Golden State outscored Denver, 33-20, in the period after both teams had struggled to score in the first half. Curry shot 68 percent from the floor in the third quarters during the series.

For the better part of five games, the Warriors and Nuggets had played the most exciting series in this year’s NBA playoffs. The brilliance of Curry has been one of the greater narratives of the first round. The Warriors’ exciting brand of basketball was fun to watch, save for the most excruciating nine minutes of their season.

Curry, Thompson, Jarrett Jack and Draymond Green helped build the Warriors’ comfortable lead Thursday. And they all had moments that threatened to tear it down.

Curry finished with 22 points and eight assists, but he also had seven turnovers, including four in the fourth quarter. Green had nine of his 16 points in the fourth but made careless blunders on inbounds passes. In fact, the Warriors’ core players combined to turn the ball over five times in the final 1:37.

But they also had some help. The Nuggets, facing elimination, scratched their way back into the game with defensive pressure Golden State hadn’t seen all series. With multiple rangy defenders and speedy point guard Ty Lawson (17 points), Denver turned the Warriors over 10 times in the fourth quarter to produce eight points.

“Every opportunity we got on a ball in the corner, we went after the double-team and created a lot of turnovers and got our hands on the ball," Nuggets coach George Karl said on NBA TV. "And almost got an opportunity to win the game.”

Andre Iguodala helped stabilize the team after it went down big. He had 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter.

The Nuggets mounted a 13-0 run during their sprint back into the game. They eventually cut the deficit to 90-88 and had the ball with 21.7 seconds remaining. They wouldn’t come closer, though, as Wilson Chandler missed a floater and a second-chance attempt.

Their final opportunity came as Jack was trapped in the corner with nowhere to go. Chandler’s outstretched leg went out of bounds while his hand was on the ball, and the Warriors were awarded possession.

Jack’s free throws on the ensuing inbound closed the series.

“We had numerous moments to get in on the game and we never did,” Karl said. “One more layup, one more free throw go in, it could have been a miraculous comeback.”

Indeed, Denver had put in a solid effort and the Warriors were simply happy to survive the night. They refrained from expending too much energy immediately after the win.